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Couple jailed after boy 'left for dead'

A lesbian couple who stabbed a 13-year-old boy more than 20 times have been jailed for attempted murder.

Lorraine Large was jailed for nine years while Gemma McGarvie was sentenced to seven years at a young offenders' institution. The boy, who is now 14, suffered 23 stab wounds to his chest, back and legs, and his throat had been slit.

At Lewes Crown Court on Friday, Judge Richard Brown told the pair they had committed a "cowardly and vicious attack" on a defenceless child.

Judge Brown said the defendants must both be severely punished. He said: "The victim had done absolutely nothing to provoke the attack on him. He was barely conscious. "Once you had begun your cowardly and vicious attack, you continued until you reached the point where as far as you were concerned, he was dead."

During the four-week trial, the jury heard Large, 22, and 18-year-old McGarvie dragged the teenager to a public green in West Sussex and set about him with a seven-inch carving knife.

Large, of Foxes Croft, Barnham, and McGarvie, of South Terrace, Littlehampton also brandished a craft knife, and left the boy for dead after a party on 15 December 2000.

Prosecutor Richard Anelay QC told the jury the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been to a party on the night and angered the pair by being sick after drinking cider. Paramedics found him near a bench in a pool of blood.

During the trial, Large and McGarvie had blamed each other for the attack. During her evidence, Large accused McGarvie of launching the attack, telling the jury she had said: "The little bastard's still breathing. I'm going to finish him off."

But a 16-year-old girl who went to the party told the court that Large told her how she had stabbed the teenager. She said Large was very calm as she said: "He is dead. I have stabbed him. He's in a really bad way."

Following pre-sentence reports, McGarvie's lawyer Rock Tansey asked for leniency pointing out she was 17 at the time of the attack and had no previous history of violence to others. He told the court: "She was immature and has specific and severe emotional problems. "Gemma McGarvie was a very vulnerable person. We submit that she fell under the influence and spell of Lorraine Large who was an older young woman."

He said McGarvie "bitterly regretted" the attack and played a "lesser" part in the incident. But speaking for Large, Paul Dunkels said it would be "dangerous and unfair" to pass responsibility of McGarvie's actions on to her. From the pre-sentence reports, he said Large too was a "vulnerable young woman with low-self esteem". The judge told the pair : "We do not know what was going on in your minds as neither of you had the guts to tell. "You have both done your level best to lie your way out of the situation, which indicates to me you have no real remorse."

26th January 2002

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